This invention relates to improvements in portable toilet or xe2x80x9crestroomxe2x80x9d constructions by which a portable toilet cabana and waste holding tank may be formed of separate components which may be stored and transported to a use site and then manually assembled for temporary toilet use, following which the components may be disassembled for return transportation and storage.
Portable toilets, which are sometimes referred to as restrooms or out-houses, are conventionally made of large wall panels which are assembled upon a base and provided with a covering roof for forming an enclosure or cabana containing a toilet and waste storage tank. Conventionally, the cabana walls are made of plastic panels which are secured together along their adjacent vertical edges with their lower edges secured to the base. The various components that make up the portable toilet cabanas are usually factory assembled so that the cabanas are transported in assembled condition to the site where they are to be used. Periodically during use, the waste storage tanks are emptied, such as by use of pumping equipment that pumps, through a pipe, the waste contained in the waste storage tanks into a large tank carried upon a service vehicle. When a toilet is no longer needed at a particular use site, such as at a construction site or a public event, the assembled toilet is picked up and placed upon a vehicle and transported to another use site or to a storage facility to await further use.
Examples of known types of portable toilet cabanas or restrooms are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,351 issued Mar. 25, 1986 to George W. Harding; U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,671 issued May 23, 1989 to George W. Harding; U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,765 issued Apr. 24, 1990 to George W. Harding; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,622 issued Nov. 4, 1997 to Richard Leach Tagg. Each of these patents disclose a construction wherein the restroom or cabana is formed of large plastic panels that are joined together along their vertical adjacent edges and to a base by suitable connectors which provide a rigid enclosure that may be transported, used and then re-transported as a completely assembled unit.
Since portable toilet cabanas or restrooms are relatively large in size, the number of assembled units that can be transported on a vehicle, such as a truck, is limited. Thus, in an effort to reduce the sizes of portable toilet restrooms or cabanas, particularly for transportation and storage, attempts have been made to connect the wall, floor and roof panels together in a way that permits them to be folded relative to each other into a relatively flat condition. Examples of such constructions are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,164 issued Dec. 15, 1981 to Frank T. Sargent et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,118 issued Jan. 15, 1985 to Earl J. Braxton.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,118 shows walls that are hingedly connected together. Two of the wall panels are formed of hinged sections. This permits folding of the walls into a generally flat arrangement which can be assembled for use at a particular site when needed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,164 discloses separable walls.
Because these portable toilet restrooms take considerable abuse and are subject to vandalism or other forces accidentally applied to them, including the forces of wind and severe weather conditions, considerable strength and rigidity is required to fasten the components together and to maintain the structural integrity of the assembly. Moreover, it would be desired to have a structure whose components may be manually assembled together rapidly without tools, and similarly disassembled.
Thus, this invention is concerned with a plastic panel type of portable toilet restroom or cabana which may be rapidly assembled and disassembled manually, without tools, and which, when assembled, forms a rigid structure that is able to resist impacts or severe wind forces. Large numbers of such disassembled cabanas may be transported on trucks or in aircraft or compactly stored.
This invention contemplates a portable toilet restroom or cabana formed of substantially similar plastic wall panels connected together along their vertical edges and connected at their lower edges to a base or pallet, with a covering roof. The wall and base components are secured together frictionally by simplified tongue and groove types of connections. In the case of the roof, simplified pin fasteners hold the roof in place. Preferably the vertical edges of the panels are formed with resilient edge strips or flanges which frictionally are held within elongated channel members. Thus, the edge strips are tightly interlocked within the channels by both friction and the springiness of the plastic material. The channel members are slid downwardly, endwise, over adjacent panel edge strips to interlock the adjacent edges of each pair of panels. The lower edges of the panels may be interlocked with the flat base or pallet by means of horizontal channels that receive tongues or flange strips formed on the base and the lower edges of the panels.
Further, it is contemplated to provide a separate waste holding tank that is positioned upon the base within the cabana. Preferably the tank contains an inner metal container which forms a removable burn container. The container may be manually removed from the cabana, so that its waste contents may be burned in the container by utilizing a suitable flammable material. This system empties the waste tank without the need for waste removal equipment.
An object of this invention is to provide a portable toilet construction formed of a number of separated components which may be stored and then transported as separate pieces. The pieces may be rapidly, manually assembled, with either no tools or with minimal tools, into a useable restroom. Similarly, the restroom may be rapidly disassembled manually, for transportation of its separate components to storage sites or to other use sites.
Another object of this invention is to provide a portable toilet restroom facility having a waste collection system by which human waste may be manually removed within a container mounted within a waste holding tank. The collected waste may be burned in the container or may be dumped manually. Therefore, separate waste removal equipment, such as tank trucks are not required.
Still a further object of this invention is to provide a portable toilet restroom or cabana that, upon assembly, is rigid and has sufficient strength to resist impacts, wind forces and other shocks and yet may be rapidly assembled and disassembled. The construction utilizes connectors which enable the walls and the base components to be quickly slid relative to each other into rigid interconnections that are held by friction and by inherit springiness of the plastic sheet material forming the components.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a portable toilet restroom or cabana made of separate components which are interchangeable or replaceable with similar components so that in the event of damage to any particular component, another similar component that may be available at the same site may be utilized immediately for replacement and repair of the unit to, therefore, maintain the toilet for immediate availability.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon reading the following description, of which the attached drawings form a part. In these drawings: